Principles of medicine : an elementary view of the causes, nature, treatment, diagnosis and prognosis of disease with brief remarks on hygienics, or the preservation of health / by Charles J.B. Williams.

  • Williams, Charles J. B. (Charles James Blasius), 1805-1889.
Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Principles of medicine : an elementary view of the causes, nature, treatment, diagnosis and prognosis of disease with brief remarks on hygienics, or the preservation of health / by Charles J.B. Williams. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    however even greater; for the vital functions then become depraved as well as depressed, a state of cachexia as well as anaemia is induced, and very trifling causes suffice to determine grave states of disease. Menor- rhagia, diarrhoea, leucorrhoea, and other hemorrhages and fluxes, if ex- cessive, reduce the powers of life and the capacity to resist disease. No loss of this nature, however, weakens so much or so irreparably, as excessive secretion of semen. In many of the lower tribes of ani- mals, the males live till they copulate, and then die: the reproduction of the species is at the expense of the individual. That our own species is not wholly exempt from this law of organized nature, is apparent from the fact that immoderate venery produces extreme debility and premature decay, and predisposes body and mind to various diseases. 30. (/.) Previous debilitating diseases. It is well known that the body is unusually liable to contract fresh disorder during convalescence from serious maladies. It is then weak in all its powers; and the nerv- ous system often obtains the ascendency which is common in states of weakness, and which renders the body unusually susceptible to mis- chief (§ 23); improper food, exertion, excitement, or exposure to cold, at such times readily produce the former or some new complaint. Hence convalescence from a severe disease is a state requiring pecu- liar care. The functions are just resuming their balance, and have neither the vigor of action nor the power of resistance which is the attribute of robust health. The diseases which leave the body most liable to this species of derangement are those ending in.exhaustion; as continued fevers and protracted and severe inflammations. 31. II. Hitherto we have considered only those circumstances which predispose to disease through a weakening influence (§§ 16, 17, 20). There are, however, other circumstances of a somewhat opposite char- acter, which favor the production of disease through states of ex- citement OR activity. Full living, without an adequate amount of exercise, often brings the circulation and other functions up to a high pressure degree of activity without producing disease; there is then re- dundancy of health, and a more*than usual capability of resisting those causes of disease which operate by depression, such as cold, malaria, and infection. But there is a predisposition to suffer from causes of additional excitement; thus irritants then more readily induce inflam- mation; violent exertion causes hemorrhages; and the stimulation of almost any organ may heighten the vital actions to a morbid pitch (§ 5—8). So, also, unusual vascular activity in a part, although in- sufficient to produce positive disease, may render the part more liable to suffer upon the supervention of external causes. Thus the determi- nation of blood to the uterus and mammae at certain periods renders those organs then more liable to disease. Violent exertion makes the muscles, or their fasciae, peculiarly prone to rheumatic inflammation on the application of cold and damp. Excessive indulgence in stimulant diuretic beverages (such as punch), renders the kidneys liable to in- flammation or congestion on exposure to cold. Inflammation or irri- tation of the intestines is not a common effect of cold, but often be- comes so when these viscera are under the exciting influence of a pur-